Various industries such as land and air transportation vehicle manufacturers, petroleum, power systems, etc., need strong and at the same time light weight components such as, for example, pipes. For example, modern airplanes require high strength-to-weight ratio of components to satisfy the flight performance requirements. Thin-wall pipes with high strength properties made from alloys of aluminum, titanium, stainless steel, etc., are widely used in such industries and are bent with various radiuses and bending angels. In order to reduce weight on the one hand, and volume on the other hand, these pipes are typically formed with minimum bend radius. As a result, due to the specific characteristics of light and thin-walled pipes, conventional bending methods cannot be used for bending such pipes with high bending radiuses (e.g., when bending radius is equivalent of the pipe outside diameter), because bending such pipes using the conventional methods may cause changes in the thickness of the pipe wall, occurrence of tears or wrinkles in the pipe wall, or deformation or upsetting of the pipe.
Therefore, a need exists for device and method for bending thin-wall pipes to prevent damages such as deformation or upsetting, change in the pipe wall thickness and tears or wrinkles to the pipe body. For example, prior to bending a pipe, the pipe can be filled with one or more pieces of flexible material made from elastomers such as, for example, rubber, polyurethane, etc. However, various factors associated with the elastomer fillers can affect the quality of the bent pipe. For example, type, elasticity, and arrangement of pieces of elastomer fillers can affect the bending process and product.
Therefore, a need exists for calculating the filler types, elasticity and arrangement of filler pieces and selecting the filler based on calculation results prior to placing the filler inside the pipe for bending.